Windows XP forum: Opening E-mail links.

I have the same indications in Hotmail. It's seems to be a quirk of SP2, when used in conjunction with pop-up blockers and Hotmail. At least in my case.

Hotmail: Click Links No Werkum; OE: Click Links Werkum Fine.

The links in my gmail e-mails are fully functional.

I've attributed it to Billy's Bugware, and have done an Alfred E. Newman "What, Me Worry?" fix on it. Rather then fret about it, I go to OE if I want or need to go to links contained in Hotmail e-mails.

Are you sure that what you clicked at was a 'live' link, e.g. underlined and blue ? Send a message to yourself using your e-mail account, with HTML or rich text enabled. Include a web address. Open that received message and click on that web address. Are you able to access the web site ?

and after I did a little investigating, it looks like it is Hotmail issue on how it handles redirected links.

Here's an article I found that hopefully will answer some questions:

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/html_hotmail.htm

-Lee

I use outlook express that is built into Windows XP. I am using Windows XP Professional. Another way to get to a link that is in an email when using the browser based hotmail is just to highlight the link and copy and paste it into the address bar of a new browser window.

To open a new browser window just press Ctrl + N, then paste the link into the address bar.

I had the same problem. I was e-mailing Hotmail support for four weeks. They had me changing settings and then on the fourth e-mail told me to re-install Internet Exp. I could open the links in my hotmail on another computer but not mine.
I was just fooling around and I right clicked on the Internet Exp. logo in the upper right corner and a dropdown came down with the option for Web assistant. It put a little glob and Web Assistant on my address bar with a little arrow dropdown. I clicked on the arrow and everything had a check on it. It had block popups, block cookies,and block ads. I unchecked the checks and went to hotmail and all the links open now.
I was really getting tired of the things that the support people were telling me. I knew it had to be something simple.
Hope this helps. Lin

hotmail? defending against spam?? UNLIKELY~! its much more likly to be promoting its own interests.. (ie MSn suported advertisers NEVER go idle!!)

im on SE (98) and i get this problem too.!
and have complained.
and like the link that Lee gave us earlier explains - hotmail has this "time out" thing with its links. the time frame seems to depend on the email..and can be non existant!

what i do - when there is no link to copy and paste- is click on the link and hope for the best. When it enevtiably doesnt work@! you can snip the hotmail nonsense from the begining of the (new) link..

EG here id the link they gave me for this web link...

http://64.4.43.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=bebd099ae90c94f6ab4f64b6e2232aab&lat=1099483173&hm___action=http://ct.com.com/click?q=2a-CN4WIrIUzgS4OfNTiLQzj_c6jSwz

you can see a whole lot of nonsense- BUT the second half (from http:// ) is the REAL link you want -
simply delete the nonsesense and press enter.

its better than going through outlook!

hotmail have improved their links recently i'VE noticed..
Their (temp) links used to have lots of % and other extra junk .. seems to have been removed now (ie a link used to look a little like http://reviews%VGFJ%cnet%fddjlk%com/ )

Both Microsoft Outlook (2000 and newer) and the free Microsoft Outlook Express allow a user to create a HTTP email account to view their Hotmail folders. I personnally use Microsoft Outlook 2003 for my Hotmail.

I have Windows ME and I have the same problem but I go to Outlook express or to the free version of the Incredimail, I have not problem with them
violeta

I started having the same problem about 3 weeks ago. I have to open Netscape browser and search for MSN.Com. When it come up I then go to my e-mail and then I am able to open the links.

I have had similar problems. I am using Norton Personal Firewall 2004. When I disable Norton Personal Firewall before acessing my hotmail account the links work fine. Norton Personal Firewall parameters need to be reset but I don't have the inormation.

I have been reading the newsletters and this topic caught my eye. I have had the same problem with my Hotmail and I DO NOT have SP2 (my son said it crashed his computer!) I emailed Hotmail Support and they sent back a long reply with possible fixes.

First they had me clear temporary Internet files. Then they told me to lower my security settings. The third fix was to restore default settings in Internet Explorer. Well, none of these worked, and I had spent a lot of time previously customizing my security settings! I thought it might be the popup blocker, so I did CTRL + clicking on the link, but that didn't work so I didn't take it any further.

After reading this forum I went to my Hotmail account and disabled the pop-up blocker. IT WORKED! I can't believe the Hotmail techies didn't figure this out!

By the way, with the Web Assistant you can change the popup and ad settings for each site you are on.

I am very impressed with the respectfulness of the members on this website. Even thought I'm a newbie, I don't feel stupid asking "dumb" questions! Thank you for a great website.